The Curse (Middle)
by Raggazzed12
Summary: Part of a giant story. Entry for finals of Pro-bender Circuit Competition. Team Avatar (and a few others) decide to take a trip to the infamous White Falls to find evidence of the infamous White Falls Wolfbat. The middle of a story written by my awesome team (and myself) the White Falls Wolfbats.


**A/N: Here we go. The finals. And this is my task and following prompts. This story is a part of a giant story with four parts. This is the middle as said by the summary and probably the title (I have no idea). Yay!**

 **Middle: They find White Falls, but after much searching they are unable to find the creatures. While they search, Azula falls in and try as the crew might, they can't find her.**

 **Prompts: (dialogue) "Maybe this was a bad idea", (emotion) regret, (emotion) fear, (genre) Action, (genre) Adventure**

 **Well here we go!**

They set off through the bushes, Zuko (grumpily) leading the way. He'd only agreed to this because he felt the need to let them have their fun. It was a stupid sort of fun, of course, and just the type of thing they would have all imagined or cooked up. Well, of course, they'd been told about this beast, or beasts, but Zuko doubted either had thought twice. Aside from his sister; she was busy poking around the bushes and looking frustrated over the fact that she had to deal with them or him or anyone at all. Acting like she was too good to go through a ton of bushes. At least she didn't have to lead.

The fuming had begun when he'd realized they wanted to find these falls and find the beast. Azula had already teased him enough that day and he'd been waiting to go hide in his tent. Now Zuko was forced to wander through the basically unknown forest with his friends who seemed way too excited for this mess. How could they even think of being excited? If they found the Wolfbat someone would probably end up getting hurt.

All the while Zuko fumed over this he didn't realize that he was beginning to hear the sounds of rushing water. After having been informed of this place by that person at the campfire, Zuko wasn't sure the place actually existed. It turned out that he was wrong in his doubts. There was definitely the sound of rushing water, he could hear it clearly, and Zuko was suddenly thrust into a clearing where the water ran and he could see the falls. Sighing, he turned to look for the others who were a little farther behind because they'd been talking about how excited they were to find the mysterious falls and its inhabitants.

"Hey! I found it!" He called out over the din of the waterfall before him. Zuko was having one heck of a day already, and now they'd actually found the falls which meant everyone else would be highly interested in investigating it. Muttering to himself, he watched and waited for the others to arrive through the bushes.

"Well what do you know? Fire man find water!" The comical grin on Sokka's face made Zuko all the more frazzled, but he refused to let it annoy him too much.

"If these are indeed the falls, which I do believe they are, what exactly must we do to find the Wolfbats?" Suki elbowed her boyfriend in the gut before turning to them all with the question that had been on literally every person's mind, well, everyone except perhaps Azula's, whom was standing off to the edge glaring at them.

"Search, obviously." Aang stared at her as if she'd gone insane.

There was a bit of a comfortable silence for a moment as everyone realized this was going to be a bit harder than they'd thought. Thinking about finding a giant mythological beast was one thing, actually finding the giant mythical beast was another. Zuko swore silently under his breath at their stupidity, what had they been trying to do? There was no way in-

"We should split up and search." His thoughts were rudely interrupted by Toph, who was standing with her arms cross a few feet away next to Ty Lee. "I'll go with Ty Lee."

"Sounds great to me!" Ty Lee grinned; giving a smile that Zuko figured would probably have hurt anyone else's mouth from being too wide.

"Sokka, you want to bring Suki with me and Katara?" Aang offered the older boy, who nodded exuberantly. All eyes then turned to look at Zuko, who turned to nod to Mai.

"Alright, well, I clearly don't need a protector or anything. I'll just be going that way. Keep yourselves safe, losers." Azula stalked out of the area immediately after she realized she was alone, no doubt, for Zuko could practically see it in her eyes.

"Oh get your butt back here." He said firmly, staring after the retreating form of his sister. "You're coming with me and Mai. Nothing that could happen needs to happen. We're just looking for a beast, not trying to rule a civilization, Azula."

His sister stalked over to them, looking more annoyed every minute but willingly walking over and standing by them. Mai didn't even look at him when he glanced at her, probably out of frustration that he would allow his sister to come in and ruin all the fun with them. Not that either were looking for fun but private time was appreciated now and then.

"Well looks like everyone's situated, best that we start off sooner. I do not want to be caught in the dark." A worried look crossed over Katara's face as she announced this, but Aang wrapped his arm around her in reassurance.

"I'll protect you." His air was that of a mighty prince and away they went; Zuko found himself staring after Katara longingly, feeling a small amount of jealousy creep into his mind.

Mai had noticed and he felt her nudge him with her elbow, she was standing beside him watching the couples walk away as well, but he turned to see her glaring at him.

"Don't even think about talking to me about any of your girl problems. If you're cheating on me then I really will be angry with you. Come on, we'll go this way." The cold tone of her voice cut straight through the moments of tenderness and affection and Zuko gulped and sighed, letting her know he was okay with not letting any other feelings aside from ones about her to show through.

They began their trek up the boggy slopes of the falls. Zuko was suddenly glad he'd brought the hiking boots that he'd never managed to use before now as they both avoided various large mud spots and puddles. His fuming was silently disappearing as if not being with an entire eager group was affecting his behavior. Perhaps it was, for Zuko found he actually enjoying the climb up the falls. They hadn't even really volunteered to go to the top, but now he was wondering where else he would have gone. At one point he had to steady himself by grabbing hold of Mai who willingly held out her hand but rolled her eyes teasingly. This girl was going to cause her own trouble out here. Azula only rolled her eyes in exasperation at the two, as if she couldn't believe they'd do something so cheesy.

Soon after having made it to the area where there looked to be a cave, Zuko turned to Mai. Neither really knew what they were doing out here other than searching for a mythological beast, and Zuko wasn't even sure he really believed in it or not. Okay, he did. He'd seen some crazy things before. Yet it just felt like maybe they weren't going to be lucky. It was at that moment that he forgot about Azula and just focused on the other dark haired girl in front of him, not allowing his mind to wander to the brown haired girl who was constantly on the edge of his mind.

"How long do you think it'll take for us to get there?" He raised his one eyebrow, observing her carefully. The annoyance had gone; it was now replaced with a mellow feeling that he couldn't seem to shake off.

"Probably the others will find it. I doubt we'll be able to, with your sister in tow."

"Maybe this was a bad idea." He shrugged.

Mai had regarded Azula coldly since they'd ceased being friends in their sophomore year of high school. There had been a huge fight, no one was sure what had exactly happened during it, but neither had been friends afterwards. So now that they were stuck together again, Mai clearly wasn't happy about it and Zuko didn't like that she wasn't, but he couldn't help it. It was his sister. And it wasn't like he hated her. He'd always been the one to try and get closer.

"Azula is part of the reason we're here. She wanted to search for it." He prompted, and then moved forwards a few feet, regretting immediately his choice to wear shorts because he stepped right into a thicket of thorns.

Jumping backwards in pain, Zuko fell on top of Mai. They both landed in the mud and lay there for a simple moment. Zuko felt the mellowness as if it was a heavy blanket settling over him, yet he tried to ignore it. Mai would tease him for acting so strangely. This place, though, was giving him strange vibes like something was afoot and something big was going to happen. As he lay there in the mud it felt like he could hear the beat of drums acting as a warning sound, telling them that not all was safe.

Mai pulled him up suddenly as he had been too lost in thought to see she'd gotten up, and he allowed her to do so. They promptly turned away from each other and began looking around as if they had lost something, Zuko wasn't sure where the random timid feeling had come from but it was suddenly there now. He saw no sign of any giant Wolfbat hanging around the area, yet failed to notice he had his back turned on Azula, who had been standing on the edge of the cliff observing it like it was her own kingdom.

That was when it happened. There was a violent, horrific scream from the area Azula had been in. In a mere instant, Zuko turned around, looking for his sister. She wasn't standing where she had been a moment ago. Panic overtook his brain, and for a moment he hoped she had only fallen down the slope. He quickly ran over to the overhang, he saw with dismay that it was right by the edge of the falls, as they managed to fall off themselves in their rush. Mai was right behind him. Somewhere down below, screams were coming from the no doubt soaked and wrecked body of Azula. In horror, Zuko tore down the slopes, forgetting about Mai. He forgot about everything. His previous anger, the mellow feeling, all he could feel was fear. The fear that it was too late for his sister.

Once down at the bottom, he came upon a sight of which he never wanted to remember and would try not to afterward. Azula was stuck in some sort of large sinkhole and appeared to be just bobbing there screaming her head off-he thought of how ridiculous she was being, but terror still ran through his body. He could do nothing. None of them could do anything. Mai was right by him as he dropped to his knees, and put a hand on his shoulder. The dark haired boy put his head in his hands before telling her to go get the others. The amount of fear he was feeling at the moment was unbelievable; he hadn't thought becoming this scared for his own sister who treated him so badly was possible. But there she was, screaming and terror spread across her face, stuck in the water of the falls.

He wasn't sure how she'd fallen. It was almost as if something had pushed her. But Zuko had no time to think about this as soon came the rest of the group with Mai in lead, all looking either really worried or like Katara, rolling their eyes and not really caring. Mai had run off and he hadn't seen it? He dropped the question as he watched their reactions to the sight before them, his annoyance at all of them growing ever so slightly because they were the reason his sister was like this. The moment everyone saw what had happened, annoyed looks were dropped and they were instantly by his side.

"What happened?" Aang's normal smile was replaced with a frown of worry. "We were out searching for a long time, when did this happen?"

"Just now. I don't know how or what happened. She just fell from the cliff edge." He said quickly, noting the new miserable tone in his voice. It wasn't anything new to him but it was an annoying habit that had occurred so much in the past years he'd begun to hate it ever so slightly.

"How are we going to get her out?" The question silenced everyone, and it surprisingly enough came from Sokka.

There they stood, watching Azula trying to swim out of the sinkhole. Zuko couldn't think of any possible thing they could do to save her. Maybe a rope? He glanced around looking at the others, wondering if there was any rope in anyone's bag. Oh! There! Toph had some wrapped around her waist.

"Toph? We need to try and use that rope." He called out weakly. Toph understood and walked forward, hesitantly, but he stood up and took her hand, then proceeded to take the rope out of it.

It was a tough rope, the type that could stand this kind of harassment, or so he hoped. Zuko called out to Azula, who barely had time to look at him before the rope was right in front of her. Shouting at her he tried to get her to grab ahold. The rest of the crew watched nervously from the side, terrified beyond anything any had felt before. It was stressful enough that they were out here alone, but now that they had to try and save someone from a sinkhole was another, and Zuko knew this from the bottom of his heart. He could feel the tension. But he had to save Azula. The terror and fear was too much.

For a moment everything was at a standstill. Zuko felt his anger and annoyance at the others flare up again in one tiny instant while they waited with baited breaths, hoping Azula would grab hold. He was still angry at them for having dragged them all here and now for this to happen, yet Zuko couldn't master his anger and make it seem like he was extremely angry because he was terrified. Terrified to the point where nothing else mattered except getting Azula out of the water.

She didn't grab ahold though, she couldn't. Her hands grasped at the rope weakly, in attempt to save herself. The hazel eyes on both her and her brother's faces were wide with terror, and they stared at each other from across the churning water. With one last attempt, Azula shook her head briefly and mouthed the words "I'm sorry" over to him through the water. Then she disappeared into the sinkhole, her body swept down with the water.

They watched in desperation as her body was sucked down into the chasm below, all wishing they could have gotten her out sooner. Zuko felt tears prick his eyes, he didn't know why he'd become so emotional, she'd meant basically nothing to him. But at that last moment where she'd uttered those words that now would always mean more to him than anything, he'd felt something break inside of him, and regret began to fill up his brain, filling up his mind with its horrid, twisted tones.

 _To be continued…_

 **A/N: To be continued! In the other part! Other two parts, actually. By other authors! Yay! I'm sure you'll find those parts by looking them up! We should make a collection somehow together! I'm speaking in weird sentences! Well that was the second chapter of this story. The third and fourth are either already or to be published stories. I'm not going to say anything about this and how I feel towards I as I know the outcome. Just leaving you all in suspense. Well, thanks for reading, and please, review, review, review!**


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